A white Christmas

I have been lucky enough to be in some interesting places for holidays; sitting on the sea of Galilee for Thanksgiving, hiking in Alaska for the fourth of July, walking the streets of Dublin for Halloween, and sleeping in an igloo in the Tetons for another Thanksgiving. Somehow none of those compare to Christmas in Antatctica. Not only am I a whole globe away from Santa and his crafty elves, I have a guaranteed white Christmas, it will be light on Christmas Eve night, the plane bringing our packages from New Zealand broke, and I am with people that I had never met until a few months ago. What a weird look at Christmas! I can't say it has really felt like the Christmas season, but part of that is good. There is no commercialism here, no store windows, no 1 week non-stop Christmas music on the radios, no traffic, not late runs to Wal-Mart for missing Christmas supplies, and no sweet Christmas sweaters with turtlenecks underneath. It certainly makes you do some thinking as to what our society has placed importance on. Despite being away from family and friends I am not going to sit around feeling sorry for myself. I have conjured up some cool Christmas plans for this year. It is now Christmas Eve and I am going for a hike to the Peninsula to check out the ice breaker ship that is cutting the channel to McMurdo. If the weather is good on Christmas, not horribly stormy or windy, I will grab a chair and head outside with a few buddies to chill out with my Hawaiian shirt and sandals to soak in some rays. We might freeze after two minutes, but it should be a good time. I am excited to read my cards from many of you and spend time thanking God for what amazing family and friends I have. I hope your holidays are filled with quality rest and family time. Merry Christmas to you all!